NEW DELHI: In Varanasi, the constituency where BJP's prime ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi is contesting, the Congress is trying to reduce the split in non-BJP votes, even as the suspense continues over its own nominee.

The Congress leadership is actively negotiating with Mulayam Singh Yadav to get Samajwadi Party's Kailash Chaurasia withdraw from the fray to reinforce the Congress ' position against the Gujarat chief minister, sources said. It is also trying to prevail upon Quami Ekta Dal (QED) leader Mukhtar Ansari to pull out of the race.

The Congress leadership has of late been highlighting the need "for the larger unity of secular forces" against the Modi-led BJP. The larger polity "should be aware of the fact that only the Congress has the reach and credentials to fight and defeat the BJP in this critical battle, more so when it is headed by a leader with dictatorial streak", Union minister Anand Sharma told a press conference at the AICC on Wednesday.

"...the people must ensure no split among the secular votes." The Congress has announced the candidates for all other Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha from where the party is planning to contest, except Varanasi. It has promised to field a formidable candidate against Modi in the holy city.

"We are in touch with SP leadership as well some others, to explore the possibility of rallying maximum anti-BJP support for the Congress candidate from Varanasi against Modi," a Congress source said. "We are hopeful of the SP leadership playing a creative and responsible role in ensuring the larger unity of the secular forces against Modi's candidature."

Incidentally, the Congress has not fielded any candidate against SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and his daughter-in-law Dimple from the cons tituencies they are contesting from. The SP, in turn, isn't opposing Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The Congress effort now is to extend this informal understanding to Varanasi as well by getting the SP to withdraw its candidate in favor of the Congress nominee against Modi.

The Congress knows that AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal will stay course in fighting Modi and, therefore, is making no effort to reach out to the AAP camp, sources said. The BSP has fielded a relatively light-weight Vijay Prakash Jaiswal, who is from the same trading community that Kejriwal belongs to.

The Congress is also making efforts to prevail upon QED leader Ansari to withdraw his candidature. Ansari's sudden entry into the Varanasi battle has intrigued the Congress given it has the potential to split Muslim votes, something that can make the Modi camp happy.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi won the Varanasi seat with a margin of just over 17,000 votes with Ansari, then on a BSP ticket coming second -BSP expelled him in 2010. The SP and Congress had ended coming third and fourth, respectively. In 2004, Rajesh Mishra of the Congress had won the seat.